This is a long ass post I've been working on tonight for my site http://waxramble.com...hanged-my-life/. Nobody will probably see it over there, so I figured I'd drop it over here if anyone is bored and wants to read something lol. Maybe it reads like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU4w9FaSZ5M but I don't care, Madlib has really changed my life.

tl;dr version: Madlib got me seriously interested in music, records, now I'm going to start working at Discogs in a few weeks (partly because of interests Madlib sparked)

Those of us who listen to the kind of music I post around these parts (whenever I can!) should all be familiar with the story of the J Dilla Changed My Life shirt. This meaningful message meant a lot not only to the man himself, but to those his music impacted as well. I’ve written in the past about how this has been warped by others in an attempt to benefit them, but this message’s intention was certainly genuine when it was originally expressed and understood by those who shared these feelings. I have been a huge fan of Dilla for many years now, but I unfortunately cannot include myself among those who have been directly impacted by his music and life. J Dilla literally changed lives with his music and it would be unfair to include myself among those who have. I had only started listening to his music after his unfortunate death back in 2006 and even after listening to his music for at least hundreds of hours by now I still cannot say he has changed my life in a literal sense. I feel like this distinction is important, as there has been one single artist who has had this effect on me and my life.

Madlib has literally changed my life. I cannot remember exactly how or when I first heard of Madlib (intentionally anyway, I had been a huge fan of the Tony Hawk video games growing up where Lootpack &amp; Quasimoto were featured on the soundtrack), but I believe that this was around the time that I had started listening to MF DOOM. I originally found out about DOOM through his feature on Gorillaz’s Demon Days (modern classic) and I had eventually moved on to Operation Doomsday, MM Food, Danger Doom and most importantly, Madvillainy. All of the albums I have mentioned are fantastic, but Madvillainy had an effect on me that I cannot really describe. There are no hooks, the sample variety is all over the place, the songs are almost all about 2 minutes, the raps are pretty abstract (especially at the time I was first listening), and then the song Eye. Basically this whole album blew my mind. I had to find out more about who was responsible for this thing. DOOM was of course responsible for half of this record, but in my mind back then (and still to this day) the mastermind of Madvillainy was Madlib.

The next albums I would absorb were The Unseen, Shades of Blue, and Soundpieces (in that order). At the time I was getting into all of this, these albums were what I’d argue are quintessential Madlib, with the Unseen to this day among my top three records (tied with Liquid Swords and Paul’s Boutique). Eventually I’d get into everything else, including Jaylib, the Beat Konducta volumes, Further Adventures, Liberation, and all that excellent Dudley Perkins &amp; YNQ/etc stuff. The many mixes, particularly his appearance on Chocolate City Radio, were also influential to my listening habits around this time. During college I was really digging the Strong Arm Steady album he produced (arguably one of his best produced records in my opinion) and the excellent/ambitious Madlib Medicine Show series of records and mixes. As you can see above I did not miss a single Hit+Run release during this time. Nowadays I’m digging everything I’ve heard so far from Rock Konducta, the Blu/MED project, and the highly anticipated “Madgibbs” record which so far has had some of the best Madlib production since In Search of Stoney Jackson I think.

If you’ve made it this far (sorry, this is getting a bit longer than I thought it would be), you may be wondering how all of this adds up to Madlib “changing” my life or even having some kind of impact on it. First as you can clearly see from everything I’ve talked about so far, he’s been the #1 influence on my music habits for almost a decade now. Not only listening to his music or those he’s collaborated with, but also hounding all those tracks played during mixes and sample material. Madlib’s work has definitely broadened my horizons greatly when it comes to music. Thanks to him one of my favorite things in my collection is some $5 record I bought while in my Brazil state of mind after listening to MMS2 for instance.

This brings up another interest (addiction) Madlib has gotten me into. Ever since hearing Crate Diggin’ I had wanted to grab lots of records. My very first record on wax was Madlib’s Shades of Blue as I’ve written about in the past. As I went to college, my collection slowly started expanding and after getting paid quite well at a previous job it’s now spiked into the hundreds. For better (yay records) or worse (ouch, my wallet!) collecting records is now a big part of my life, so much so that it inspired me to start this very website! I’ve invested hundreds of hours on waxramble with no target audience in mind really, it’s just been a great way to deal with boredom and it is kind of nice to have a spot to express whatever I want to go on about. In the last six months or so the site has even become a great way of finding out about new artists, as I have received many e-mails and promos sent my way from artists. It has also helped me develop my writing skills and may have helped me with my previous job which involved large amounts of writing every day.

On that note, I’d like to share what made me decide to write all of this. After completing a year contract at a pretty big gaming company I was having a hard time finding work in this poor economy. I actually started this site while unemployed almost two years ago after college as a means of developing my writing and to just deal with the depression that comes along with not working/being broke. Someone out there may have noticed I’ve been quite active over here in recent months and it is entirely because of the similar circumstances that lead to me creating waxramble. I’ve been close to getting some good opportunities but just not close enough to securing a solid job. This was all until the last couple of weeks. I interviewed for a community support position over at Discogs (a site I love and have been using for years now) and was offered a job a few days ago. In the next few weeks I’ll be leaving the Tacoma, WA area and heading on down to Beaverton, OR which is about 3 hours away. I’ve lived in Washington my whole life so this is quite a change for me. This change I’d argue has at least been partially a result of Madlib’s domino effect. He’s what got me seriously interested in music, his own work and the music he shares sparked my interest in record collecting (signed up for Discogs then), I started my website after collecting for years, and now I’m getting an amazing/life changing opportunity with a sweet job at Discogs. Madlib changed my life.

This is probably the only time you will ever see me post a picture of myself here (yes I’m a chubby/ginger dude), but I’m doing so just to show a few of the instances where I was rocking Madlib shirts during somewhat noteworthy points in my life (hard to see, shirts here and here). To the left I’m standing next to my first car which I got as a graduation gift after college and to the right I’m in front of the White House which was the first time I had been on an airplane and to the East coast. Believe it or not, but about two minutes after that picture was taken there was a huge 5.8 magnitude earthquake that made the news (see my footage here!).

These are just some of the ways that Madlib has changed my life as of December 2013. Hopefully Madlib will keep releasing the good stuff and continuing to influence me and many others. I’ve met lots of great people over the years because of a shared interest in his music and I imagine this will only continue to occur. I had hoped to get a mix together of some of my favorite Madlib stuff but decided not to because A) my mixing skills are awful/won’t do his music justice and B. there’s enough favorite Madlib stuff to last like 10 hours. I guess all I can do is thank you for reading all of this if you made it to this point! Well I suppose I will include a treat below, kind of awesome to see what the Lootpack guys were doing before making it big on Stones Throw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yshUkZf6RBg

ps: Sorry for any spelling/grammar errors, finished writing this at 6am.

hes changed mines too... some nights my son gets no attention and the whole time im at work im thinking about looping rare shit i found!!! but i was ashamed to tell the boards because its some hard core ruthless brothas on here!!!!! lmao

Ha, I saw that coming. My probs not with thug/gangsta rap, it's just that I don't see why he's so hyped. Madgibbs still something I'm looking forward to a lot, leaked tracks fg was better on than those released imo. That said, I'm a pale ginger dude (who grew up in ghetto and eventually was living in projects for awhile, def not as bad as where gibbs from though) so take my word for what little its worth lol

Nice post. It is a really nice sharing of your life story. It is odd to hear that people first started listening to this artform in 06--so maybe that is why there is a disconnect between what I write on here and others do.

Great job on adding to the vinyl collection. Your pictures were great to see. Your avatar does not do you justice. That is one stupid looking dude so when you say something that is disparaging in anyway it attracts my ire. It stands much in contrast to Geech's avatar which is jovial and funny, almost.

Nice post. It is a really nice sharing of your life story. It is odd to hear that people first started listening to this artform in 06--so maybe that is why there is a disconnect between what I write on here and others do.

Great job on adding to the vinyl collection. Your pictures were great to see. Your avatar does not do you justice. That is one stupid looking dude so when you say something that is disparaging in anyway it attracts my ire. It stands much in contrast to Geech's avatar which is jovial and funny, almost.

Lmao these are a bunch of locals who were at all the college partys back in my college days! they were funny as hell check out the dude wit the money, this particular pic is my fav! im so glad im not in louisiana anymore!!!!!!! yuck

Nice post. It is a really nice sharing of your life story. It is odd to hear that people first started listening to this artform in 06--so maybe that is why there is a disconnect between what I write on here and others do.

Great job on adding to the vinyl collection. Your pictures were great to see. Your avatar does not do you justice. That is one stupid looking dude so when you say something that is disparaging in anyway it attracts my ire. It stands much in contrast to Geech's avatar which is jovial and funny, almost.

Well, i wouldn't say I started listening to the "artform" in 2006, I was listening to hip hop stuff before then. I do realize that I'm not "OG" about knowing all this ST stuff or even about a lot of rap, basically I didn't have my own computer or regular access to the internet until 2005 (Was seriously living the ghetto life until about 2005-2006 when circumstances changed).

Basically living in WA (super lame hip hop community back then and mostly now) my connection to hip hop started through hearing the occasional songs played on 107.7 The End (the radio, my #1 form of entertainment without regular TV/cable access) from the Beastie Boys, Gorillaz, and other semi-rap/crossover stuff that'd be featured there and from listening to CD's I bought with what little money I had or got burned from friends with computers. I'd probably say Beastie Boys, ATCQ, and Jay-Z were mostly what got me listening to more hip hop, also a bit of Wu stuff I'd hear. I'm younger than some folks here I suppose, so really none of this will stop anyone from thinking I'm a hip hop noob which really is what I'd consider myself also for the most part.

No sweat on the noob part. It is hard to take in. Age seems to matter when one is discussing music-but who cares, really. Hell you can keep hip-hop up to what it should be..
Funny thing, I think there is a hip hop dj at that station that I noticed years ago that bit my "DJ name". He could have thought of it too, but it was an obscure play on spanish and American words. When I saw that I thought it was time to change the name were I to release any creative projects. I still have a slight suspicion that the dude came across my podomatic mixes years ago.

I really wish I knew who JP was? Can you fill me in?

@Geech-yeah that avatar is awesome. Those people look like alot of fun. Your posts are always full of exuberance. You have a great spirit about you.

Ah, you're missing out. James Pants, #2 dude here on ST imo http://www.stonesthrow.com/jamespantsEverything he's put out is fantastic to me, but the more focused direction of Seven Seals and his latest self-titled album I especially enjoy.

Couple of favorite vids, his music is all over though I think there's something for everyone. This is his earlier stuff, some might like Seven Seals or self titled more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d63FTZcImcU^ PBW on the drums always cracks me up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pPllLhQ7BU^ Ratings on Youtube for this one

james pants is pretty dope!!! i have his self titled album and the 7 seal album but have yet to listen to them its been like a year! one of my best friends was on his debut album (deon davis) he thinks its funny that stonesthrow is making money from his lyrics http://www.stonesthr...a/test-tshirt-2 and not even mentioning him! lol

Thanks for the fill in Geech. That is pretty cool about your friend getting a feature on one of the projects.

Odd that he hasn't received more shine from the ST label. I will look out for more stuff from him.

hes one of those "im not signing a contract type of guy" so maybe thats why! this is the last project he did (its pretty okay), he was supposed to be working on some other stuff but his head is elsewhere!

Hey GC if you're heading to Beaverton, you should pm me to go digging some time. There are mad spots to go out here. I'm sure this is coming off as weird or creepy but I'm just a genuine dude who likes sharing music and repping the 503. I don't expect you to obviously, but if you're ever feeling like it'd be cool then hit me up. Nice article by the way.

Hey GC if you're heading to Beaverton, you should pm me to go digging some time. There are mad spots to go out here. I'm sure this is coming off as weird or creepy but I'm just a genuine dude who likes sharing music and repping the 503. I don't expect you to obviously, but if you're ever feeling like it'd be cool then hit me up. Nice article by the way.

Nah not creepy at all man. I've been to a few shops in the Portland area and you guys put Seattle to shame when it comes to records. Not sure when I'll have the money to dig again, probably after the holidays. Will be cool to hang out with someone though, I only know a few people in that area anyway. Thanks for the offer, will PM you sometime

Madlib (among others) has got me doing my own jazz mix "tapes". It is a thrill to find a cool spoken word sample to start off with and set the tone of the mix. I burn em to CD and listen on my commute. See what works and what doesn't, then go back and work on it some more... wish I could get paid for doing something so fun...

Ha, I saw that coming. My probs not with thug/gangsta rap, it's just that I don't see why he's so hyped. Madgibbs still something I'm looking forward to a lot, leaked tracks fg was better on than those released imo. That said, I'm a pale ginger dude (who grew up in ghetto and eventually was living in projects for awhile, def not as bad as where gibbs from though) so take my word for what little its worth lol

Thanks for well wishes

Gangster rap is not dead, it just smells funny! I don't think I'm turning into an old man, but maybe I am. I just think gangster rap has reached it's expiration date. I'm not into hearing the same old same old about jacking fools for their yayo and smacking bitches. Sure when NWA came out, they blew my whitebread, 8th grader mind, but come on.

Madlib (among others) has got me doing my own jazz mix "tapes". It is a thrill to find a cool spoken word sample to start off with and set the tone of the mix. I burn em to CD and listen on my commute. See what works and what doesn't, then go back and work on it some more... wish I could get paid for doing something so fun...

Gangster rap is not dead, it just smells funny! I don't think I'm turning into an old man, but maybe I am. I just think gangster rap has reached it's expiration date. I'm not into hearing the same old same old about jacking fools for their yayo and smacking bitches. Sure when NWA came out, they blew my whitebread, 8th grader mind, but come on.

I was listening to that Albert Einstein project from Prodigy and Al The Chemist and there is this song where P raps about shooting some cats he has beef with. When I first heard his verse I just looked at my CD player like 'Really?!?' The shit was soooooooo fucking corny. I know I've given GC some flack in the past for his distaste for straight gangsterism but I may be coming around to that viewpoint myself.

Spent one of the best summers in my life working in LA. Best time of my life. Suckas was getting jacked and killed off frequently. I almost stayed there for good. I guess everyone is different, though.

Spent one of the best summers in my life working in LA. Best time of my life. Suckas was getting jacked and killed off frequently. I almost stayed there for good. I guess everyone is different, though.

just too humid and country i was in a small town called grambling near monroe tho it was cool for 3 years (i had hella fun) then i grew out of it., when i went to new orleans it was mad depressing what part were u in!? but in the mindset im in now i couldnt go back i very rarely do!

yo I was in Nola. Shit got mad dicey in the quarter-yo. I saw a cockroach the size of a xl pizza in that bitch! By day it was depressing. I kept staring at the suckas heading in and out of the casino to lose they shit. Very ugly view-that casino, I admit. I did not see a lot outside of LA. I drove around the 'Dome on game day to head to Metairie. Fans looked like they were on hella narcotics.

When I first heard his verse I just looked at my CD player like 'Really?!?' The shit was soooooooo fucking corny. I know I've given GC some flack in the past for his distaste for straight gangsterism but I may be coming around to that viewpoint myself.

Basically that was my whole reaction to the Thuggin video (not even the song itself, even though it's point is really just as ignorant). I seriously don't mind thug/gangsta rap or persona but sometimes it gets to a point of being really corny. Also I don't mind those who give me flack for not digging Gibbs as a rapper, I can see why some folks might like him but he just isn't really all that standout to me personally. I do prefer the leaked tracks to Madgibbs more than the singles (as far as the rap goes) and still definitely see this as becoming a classic Madlib project.

I only come out when the sky gets dark, in the night time
We get shark-like, when it's the right time
I run around town scalping old folks for butter knives
No regards for nothing, we all up on the gutter life

or?

Like one time this brotha blew my bathroom up trying to get relief
But didn't know, I roll my toilet paper on poison ivy leaf
Heh, I give a what you think of my life, hitting every wife, cuz we all up on strife

Basically that was my whole reaction to the Thuggin video (not even the song itself, even though it's point is really just as ignorant). I seriously don't mind thug/gangsta rap or persona but sometimes it gets to a point of being really corny. Also I don't mind those who give me flack for not digging Gibbs as a rapper, I can see why some folks might like him but he just isn't really all that standout to me personally. I do prefer the leaked tracks to Madgibbs more than the singles (as far as the rap goes) and still definitely see this as becoming a classic Madlib project.

Ha! That's the video that mad me think that Gangster rap had expired. Shame was a way better video and song.